Sam Bird, from Claygate, and Christian Bakkerud, from Esher, raced the third and fourth rounds of the single-seater series as members of the same team, Carlin Motorsport.

Both picked up championship points but only after difficult qualifying sessions and some unfortunate collisions during the races.

In the first qualifying session, both drivers had trouble finding the best set-up for Brands Hatch’s Indy circuit and were off the pace.

Christian qualified 12th out of 21 drivers, while Sam was back in 15th.

The race itself was little better than qualifying for either driver. Sam, who is in his first season driving cars after several successful years in karts, was making steady progress up the field when he collided with another rookie driver, Jordan Wise.

Wise was forced to retire but, after returning to the pits for a new nose cone to be fitted, Sam returned to the race.

However, a lap down on the rest of the field, he was unable to make an impression on the result and eventually finished 19th.

Christian, meanwhile, worked his way up the field to eighth place. On the final lap, he made a brave attempt to overtake Oliver Turvey in seventh, but the Team SWR driver just managed to stay ahead as they crossed the finish line.

Sam and Christian were more successful in the second qualification, with the former taking 12th place on the grid while the latter started from 10th.

However it was not long before Christian was mixed up in a high speed tussle with a team mate that nearly ended in disaster.

Picking up momentum through Paddock Hill Bend, Christian took the inside line into Druids and moved up alongside his Portuguese team mate.

However the tyres of the two cars hit and da Costa was sent spinning off the track, rolling twice before coming to rest upside down beside the barriers.

Christian said: “The incident shook me up a bit. I was overtaking da Costa, but he didn’t see me and turned into me, causing him to flip round and hit the barriers.”

Stewards decided to stop the race for 30 minutes while the Portuguese driver was removed from his car.

Da Costa was unconscious for several minutes but came round before being taken to Maidstone General Hospital where he was diagnosed with concussion and kept overnight for observation.

The race was re-started with 12 laps remaining. Towards the end, Christian challenged Josh Fisher for sixth but the Motaworld-Quantexe driver held him off and he was forced to settle for seventh place.

The race had gone better for Sam Bird who earned his first championship point by finishing 10th and won the prize for highest-placed rookie.

One of six drivers competing in their first year of Formula BMW, Sam overtook fellow rookie Ross Curnow to collect £250 in prize money.

His mother Diane said Sam was pleased with the outcome of the Brands Hatch meeting.

“A lot is expected of Sam because he is a BMW scholar, but he was very happy with the way the weekend went.”

By contrast, Christian, who is not a rookie having raced Formula BMW in Germany last season, said his visit to Brands Hatch had been marked by frustration.

“It was a disappointing weekend,” he said. “The problems we had in qualifying ruined the whole weekend.

“We didn't have quite the right set up on the car in qualifying and couldn’t find the speed we needed.

“When we found the speed during the race, it was too late because the track is so difficult to overtake on, it doesn't matter how fast you are.

“As soon as you get up behind someone, and get close enough to overtake, you get in their slipstream and it takes away the aerodynamics of the car.

“On fast corners you understeer and the person ahead of you has a good line they pull away and you spend the next lap trying to catch up again.”

He added: “Overall, it was a bit of a lost weekend. “We gained championship points which is always good but we want to be winning races, not in the middle of the pack.”

Christian is hoping for better performances at the next round at Silverstone.

However, he said the circuit is an unknown quantity as he has never raced on it. A testing ban prevents rookies and drivers new to Britain from practising on tracks before race weekends.